Word.ws English Dictionary

shanty town

shanty town noun: an urban settlement composed predominantly of self-built, low-quality dwellings, often occupied by low-income households lacking secure land tenure.

Noun

shanty town (plural shanty towns)

  1. (derogatory, informal, sometimes) An urban settlement composed predominantly of self-built, low-quality dwellings, often occupied by low-income households lacking secure land tenure.
    • The navvies of the Midland Railway toiled for years to build it, enduring grim conditions in shanty towns that were built miles from civilisation. But build it they did, to form part of the Midland's main line between London St Pancras and Carlisle via Sheffield and Leeds from 1876.2020 May 20, Philip Haigh, “Ribblehead: at the heart of the S&C's survival and its revival”, in Rail, page 26
    Synonyms:
    Hooverville, slum

Synonyms of shanty town

Forms of shanty town

pluralshanty towns
alternative formshantytown

Questions about shanty town

What does shanty town mean?
Shanty town means an urban settlement composed predominantly of self-built, low-quality dwellings, often occupied by low-income households lacking secure land tenure.
What part of speech is shanty town?
Shanty town is a noun.
What is the plural of shanty town?
The plural of shanty town is shanty towns.

Words near shanty town in the dictionary

  1. shanty
  2. shanty back
  3. shanty backs
  4. shanty boy
  5. shanty boys
  6. shanty town
  7. shanty towns
  8. shanty-keeper
  9. shanty-keepers
  10. shantyboy
  11. shantyboys

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: shanty town (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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